The next evolution of Gravitate
Late last week our home for the past 2.5 years, the Midland Building, was sold to a developer that has exciting plans for the place. Those plans require a massive renovation of the 100+ year old structure and that’s an opportunity for us to evolve Gravitate into something stronger—in a new location.
We first found out that our previous landlord was considering selling the building last summer so that has given us plenty of time to prepare for this change and, now that it's here, we are so excited.
We love the community that we’ve grown in the Midland Building and the space that facilitates it. It’s very functional—thanks to the hard work and good efforts from our members who pitched in back in 2014 on everything from interior design to wiring to painting walls—but also limited because there was a lot we didn’t know to plan for at the time. Now that it's a few years later, we have a whole lot of experience, have visited dozens of other coworking communities and have all sorts of things we’d like to change. We’re going to get that chance.
Nothing is changing today, we have at least six more months in the Midland Building. In that time, we’ll be asking for input and thoughts from our members on how to make the next evolution of Gravitate the best it can be to support the entrepreneurs, startups, freelancers and remote workers that make this space the great place that it is.
The sale of our current building marks the official beginning to this process but since we knew it was likely to happen we haven’t been idle. Over the past few months, we’ve scouted possible new locations and have several strong options. Now that things are in process, we’re able to take the next step and talk to building owners with a timeframe in mind and that will move things along much faster.
Our team is keeping an open mind on most aspects of what that facility will be but we know that it will:
- Remain in downtown Des Moines
- Have a mix of membership options including team offices, dedicated desks and floating desks
- Include event space for user groups, meetups, and classes
It will also have room for every current member of Gravitate to move with us. We’d actually love to increase our capacity as we’ve had a waitlist on team offices and dedicated desks for most of the last year.
This is an exciting time for Gravitate and we want to hear your thoughts. Leave comments below or hit up anyone from our team with your questions.
PHOTO CREDIT: Jason Walsmith
Geoff Wood is the founder, connector and space captain at Gravitate, a workplace community for entrepreneurs, freelancers and remote workers in the heart of downtown Des Moines. In addition to writing here, he hosts a podcast, speaks at conferences, organizes events and has been helping tell the story of the Iowa startup community since 2009.